Business benefits
- Accurate payroll with reduced number of queries
- Complete visibility of service delivery across the business
- Detailed reports for decision making
- Full control and oversight of wages and budgets for planning
- Ability to respond and resolve any issues quickly
- Easy for staff to clock on/off and book holidays
- On-boarding and vetting module makes recruitment and background checks faster
- Certifications and qualifications renewals easily managed with automated alerts
“We have nearly 15,000 staff working across over 7,000 customer sites, but thanks to SmartTask we have full visibility of our operations, helping us look after our staff and deliver the service that we promise.” Jamie Davies, Group Commercial Director, Atlas FM
Atlas FM - a growing business that puts people first
Atlas FM is the UK’s fastest‑growing, privately owned, facilities management company. Atlas’ purpose is to create happiness for its people, customers and communities. Founded almost 40 years ago, it has grown from being a small local business to a nationwide facilities and support services company. It prides itself on having a great culture and values, characterised by a family feel and passionate people.
Atlas transitioned into a full Employee Ownership Trust in late 2024, becoming the first facilities management company to be 100% owned by its employees.
The company maintains many long‑standing relationships with clients, which it attests to the time it takes to understand the specific needs of every business it works with. From cleaning and security to engineering maintenance and pest control, the company delivers services for offices, factories, sporting venues, schools, universities, hotels and retail spaces. Atlas FM provides tailor‑made solutions, underpinning them with industry leading communication and reporting tools, including SmartTask.
Easy and intuitive to use
Initially Atlas FM selected SmartTask workforce management software to manage schedules, rostering and Time and Attendance for over 3,500 staff, for its ease of use, both for the operations team and employees working in the field. Its intuitive app and geo-location features make it easy for staff to book on and off, and for the control team to manage and monitor site visits. With rapid growth over recent years, Atlas FM has now rolled out the software across its workforce of nearly 15,000 staff.
“Our colleagues are the beating heart of Atlas FM. We have committed, passionate people that ensure over 7,000 client sites across the UK remain safe, clean and secure. SmartTask helps us look after our people, ensuring accurate payroll and efficient management of training and certification. We are proud of the services that we deliver, demonstrated with our average contract length of more than 10 years with our largest fifty clients,” said Jamie.
Staff can book in either using the app, with facial recognition or with a freephone automated system. A 24/7 support desk and email are on hand for any staff having problems booking on. Staff are also able to book holidays using the app, which keeps accurate, electronic records essential both for scheduling and accurate pay.
“By an absolute mile, SmartTask was the simplest and most intuitive product that I'd seen. We started using it for the cleaning teams but have now rolled it out to our security officers as well,” said Jamie.
Tailored to the business
- Managing certifications and qualifications
Atlas FM uses SmartTask to manage staff certifications, such as SIA licences and DBS checks, particularly important for staff working at schools. The software enables them to keep oversight of renewals and training or enhanced DBS checks, while the scheduling features ensures that the appropriately qualified staff are assigned to the right client sites.
- Seamless payroll keeps staff happy
With so many colleagues on the payroll and as a People First organisation, ensuring staff are fairly paid and receive appropriate benefits is a priority. Working with the SmartTask team, Atlas has tailored the system to allow managers in the field to sign off pay and compensation within set parameters, keeping the process flexible and efficient and minimising any delays.
SmartTask enables Atlas to manage payrolls on a weekly, fortnightly and four weekly basis. The accuracy of the working hours and payrates has significantly reduced queries to the payroll team and resulted in happier staff. The management team has monitored staff engagement with the SmartTask app and found that there is a direct correlation with those who use it and fewer payroll queries.
“We have a very strong people-focused culture in our organisation. Our values are to look after our people and SmartTask allows us to do that. We can clearly demonstrate that staff who use the SmartTask app definitely see the benefits with more accurate salary calculations and faster payment. We are proud that we have a very low percentage of people querying their pay,” said Jamie.
- Enhancements that support business planning
Since deploying SmartTask, Atlas has found many of the features invaluable for budgeting and planning wage costs and working hours. This has been particularly useful for some specialist clients and school sites where staff are not required during the school holidays, enabling the company to adjust schedules to accommodate and deploy staff elsewhere.
- Improving customer service
Using SmartTask has enabled Atlas to respond quickly to incidents at client sites, improving customer service. With specific customised features, the Atlas support desk can quickly identify if a problem is raised by a client, which manager has the responsibility for that site, right up to the Regional Director or Contract Manager, to get authorisation to mobilise a team and resolve the issue.
- Faster onboarding helps get employees in the field
As well as managing expiry dates and renewals of ongoing employee certification and licences, Atlas has created a graded system for colleagues, related to their qualifications and industry approved licences. This enables them to quickly deploy staff to clients where there may be particular requirements, or vetting required as part of the contractual obligations.
An API integration between SmartTask and an applicant management and tracking system called Eploy also enables Atlas to check requirements and onboard staff quickly. Applicants can complete their details which are checked and then data is passed through to SmartTask for staff to be deployed, within 15 minutes of completing the process. Atlas also has a benefits package called Wagestream which provides colleagues with the flexibility to access, check and manage their pay, which is populated with data from SmartTask.
Successful long term partnership with SmartTask
Atlas FM has seen exponential growth over recent years, acquiring and integrating new businesses, throughout which time it has worked closely with the SmartTask team to develop the product further and support the operations.
Jamie added; “The relationship that we've had over the years with SmartTask has been fantastic. It's been very open and honest and we have collaborated with the SmartTask team to help develop the product to mutual benefit. Beyond just technical support and knowledge of the software, the team has been exceptional at diagnosing and suggesting solutions to keep our business running smoothly.”